Exposure- Wilfred Owen Flashcards
describe what the poem is about
- soldiers in trenches of World War One awake at night, afraid of an enemy attack
- nature seems to be main enemy
- men imagine returning home, but doors there are closed to them
- return thinking about their deaths in icy, bleak trenches
describe the form
- written in present tense using first person plural
- collective voice shows how experience shared by soldiers across war.
- each stanza has regular rhyme scheme, reflecting monotonous nature of men’s experience, but rhymes often half rhymes rhymes jagged like reality of men’s experience and reflect their confusion and fading energy
describe the structure
- eight stanzas , but no real progression
- last stanza ends with same words as first one, reflecting monotony of life in trenches and absence of change
“our brains ache”
shared, painful experience
“in the merciless iced east winds that knive us…”
nature personified and seems to be attacking them
describe use of ellipses “…”
hint that they’re waiting for something to happen- it never does
“confuse” “worried” ““curious, nervous,”
lots of different emotions- another reason why their brains hurt
“but nothing happens”
short, simple half line emphasises their boredom and tension. Final stanza ends in same way suggesting that even death doesn’t change anything
“like twitching agonies of men among its brambles”
the “brambles” of barbed wire remind us of the pain caused by nature
“flickering gunnery rumbles”
assonance and onomatopoeia create vivid aural description
“like a dull rumour of some other war”
Biblical reference to Mathew 24:6 where Jesus foretells end of world. He says “you will hear of wars and rumours of war”
“what are we doing here?”
rhetorical question asking what the point of it all is
“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army”
dawn is personified using language of battle. normally dawn brings hope but not here
“ranks on shivering ranks”
description of dawn approaching mirrors the soldiers in trenches
“grey”
no colour- battlefield cold and lifeless. Grey colour of Germans uniform, so aligns nature with the enemy
